Woke up in our second 'Motel 8' in a row just outside of Memphis. We were pleasantly surprised by an 'ok' breakfast of toast and bagels. I had my second cup of tea of the holiday.. Lipton :P .. First thing I do when I get home is have a large mug of Yorkshire tea.
We took the car back to our memphis drop off point and bartered with the guy for the cheapest rate to keep the car till DC! It started at an additional $800 but we managed to try various drop off points and got it down to $240.. Still saving us about $400 on doing it all at once in Vegas. Definitely worth trying different options when renting a car for the long haul. Different states and areas have different drop off fees that vary dramatically and saving lots of dollars is definitely worth the extra hassle.
Once we had our dodge car and sally satnav (of course she's been named.. We made her have a British accent too, just so we don't get too homesick) confirmed all the way to our next major stop we headed off to Gracelands..The home of Mr Elvis Arran Presley!
On the way we stopped at a small boots shop at the side of the road thatwas full to bursting with cowboy boots, belts and hats! The friendly old couple were very helpful and I think we all got a little carried away withour want to look like a Texan cowboy! I bought some Lizard skin boots and snakeskin belt to go with the cowgirl hat I had already bought in NewOrleans! Steve bought some Lizard boots, snakeskin belt and hat like me andJenny couldn't decide so bought 2 pairs of boots.. Well one pair were onsale so its ok! All in all I think the shop people were very pleased indeed they didn't go for the early lunch break they had planned.. I won't say what our total bill came too :-O
At Gracelands we opted for the basic tour of the Gracelands abode..Complete with trophy hut and audio tour for the grand total of $28 .. Beinga tourist is expensive. The house was pretty crazy.. Mirrors and carpets onthe ceilings, indoor waterfalls, floor to ceiling phsycadellic wallpaper,tv room, snooker room, jungle room! We headed on through to where he recorded some of his songs and then on to the many many many walls of fame! This dude had a LOT of gold and platinum records, awards, wacky outfits,the works!
The tour gave me a new found appreciation for Elvis. my image of him before was a scary looking middle aged dude with crazy sideburns, but heyElvis was HOT in his younger years.. He fought for his country and gave alot of his time and money to charities!After our Elvis fix we put on our blue suaede shoes.. Oh no I mean cowboy boots and headed into Memphis City centre. This time we had moved from jazzin New Orleans to the blues in Memphis. The streets were filled with bluesbars and shops blaring out music. We stopped for some of the local delicasy of hickery glazed pork at the 'Pig' bar and cafe - Pork with an attitude!They had won hundreds of awards for their spit roast pork and mm we cantaste why!
We headed to the local park to listen to some live music in the sun andrest a while before getting on the road again. Memphis is meant to be thehome of rock and roll, where Elvis and many other famous artists haverecorded in places such as Sun Studios.. Our next stop off! We called inbut just missed the last tour so instead Steve bought the Sun Story CD sowe could listen to the likes of Johnny Cash and Elvis as we drove ontoNasville.
We had hoped to meet up with Box and the Military boys who were just overthe state border in Arkansas but they had to train late and we had to getback on the road.
Its now 9pm and we are just outside of Nashville. We just stopped at the 'old country store' where I got a traditional milkshake and some honey sticks.. Remember those? Jen bought us each a USA flag to say thanks for doing all the driving! One for outside the front door, one for ther livingroom and one to hang in the window just to make it clear to everyone welove America :) .. Maybe we will save them for our next themed party!?!
Hopefully off out in another music filled town tonight.. First need to find a motel..
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment